This summer, Chegg has designed an Intern Speaker Series where nearly two times a week, Chegg employees discuss their career path with the interns. The accomplished speakers are able to offer the interns valuable advice that they wish they had known when they were college students.

On June 26th, the interns heard from Anne Dwane. Anne acts as Chegg’s Chief Business OFficer. After listening to Anne speak, we asked a few interns to detail their experiences.

“During lunch on Thursday, the interns got to meet with Chief Business Officer Anne Dwane during a speaker series event. She started off by telling us how we can create value for a company and ourselves. Anne says it is important to do things right, but also to work smart. This means finding innovative ways to complete tasks and taking short cuts when appropriate. Anne has had a variety of jobs from market research to product marketing at Nabisco peanuts to starting Military.com and then Zinch. In between all these business ventures, Anne decided to go to Harvard Business School. She explains graduate school was a valuable asset for her to have, but is not the correct path for everyone.

Three tips of advice Anne gave were:
1. Hard work is overrated. It is necessary, but not sufficient.
2. Surround self with best people possible.
3. Experience is overrated. The best ideas should always win.”

– Kelly Scharr, William Smith College; Campus Initiative Intern

“This past week us Chegg interns had the opportunity to talk with Anne Dwane. I was enthused to hear her story, not only because she is Chegg’s Chief Business Officer but also because she is a powerful woman in the workforce. Anne has gone through so much throughout her career so far. From being fired her first day on the job to being involved in the creation of two renowned websites. She is a woman who a young adult in the workforce should aspire to be like.

From her talk I had four key take a ways that I will never forget.
1. When creating value you need to do things right but most of all you need to do the right things.
2. Hard work is overrated. To succeed you need to work hard but it is truly a matter of hitting your goals and objectives.
3. Experience is overrated. Experience is important but it should not hold you back from succeeding or pursuing an opportunity. The person with the best ideas should win over the person who has more experience.
4. Surround yourself with the best people possible.”

– Samantha Pann, University of Redlands; Marketing Solutions Intern

“After spending just an hour hearing about her experience in the “career jungle gym,” I feel I can safely conclude that Anne Dwane is energetic, quick to learn, and always ready to overcome new obstacles. As she shared her story, I was struck by the ease with which she talked about projects or career moves that might be considered unsuccessful – like Planter’s Reduced Fat Peanuts – and by the excitement with which she explained the lessons and experience she gained because of those projects – concept appeal does not always translate to product appeal. Towards the end of the event, she shared career advice with the interns, encouraging us to focus on working smart, not just working hard, to surround ourselves with the best people, and to never let lack of experience hold us back.”